Right now, we are in the middle of the biggest population boom Australia has ever seen.

The numbers are staggering. Australia will house 35 million people by 2050. Our population is racing ahead at a faster rate than the US, Britain, and even many developing countries.

Currently, about 443,000 people are added to our population every year. The figure used to be just 220,000.

Never before in Australia have we added this many people, with immigration rates and the Generation X driven baby boom responsible for the unprecedented growth.

In the next 40 years, Brisbane and Perth will double in size. Sydney and Melbourne will become sprawling mega-cities of 7 million people each.

But can we, as a nation, handle this exponential growth?

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he is in favour of a "bigger" Australia. But right now, Australians are car-dependent, huge energy consumers, and addicted to city living.

We are a nation of two-car commuting families, big backyards and unsustainable energy use.

The forward-thinking brains in our community say we just cannot keep living like this.

Professor Mike Young from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide predicts our 'water-affluent' lifestyle will simply have to go.

"The backyard will be a thing of the past," he said.

"Water - or lack of it - is going to determine the fate of some of our cities."

With regards to Australia's power use, Tony Vassallo from the Institute of Sustainable Solutions says 10 kilograms of coal are burnt for every household in Australia, every day.

"It's time that we start to change now how we use electricity", he said.

"And we're going to do it much more intelligently in the next few years".

Some families are already smarter about their power use - like the McQuires in Brunswick West, Melbourne, who are selling their excess solar-generated electricity back into the grid, netting them $1,000 a year.

But it is not just power, water and environmental sustainability that will come under huge pressure as we add another 13 million Australians to our already over-stretched roads, hospitals, and schools.

The ability to access work and services needs careful examination.

What do we want our nation to look like in 2050?

And what do we need to change to get there?

Leave a comment and have your say below.

-A week-long series on our ever-growing Australian population: problems, potential solutions, and the need for change, begins tonight on the 7:30 Report.

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